Lincoln's Spies: Their Secret War to Save a Nation

Lincoln's Spies is the riveting story of four Union agents and their secret battles. They were the famed detective Allan Pinkerton, who failed as General George McClellan's spymaster; the ruthless Lafayette Baker, who ran counterintelligence operations in Washington; the erudite Colonel George Sharpe, who oversaw groundbreaking espionage for Ulysses S. Grant; and the brave Virginia heiress Elizabeth Van Lew, who operated a successful spy ring in Richmond. Behind these operatives was an American president who became an avid student of spycraft and a ruthless aficionado of covert action. The phone tapping, human spying, and aerial snooping today's U.S. intelligence community engages in can be traced back to the Civil War.